Watch This Extreme Dentist Get Dangerously Close To The Giant Mouth Of A Hippo

Maintaining good oral hygiene is critical to ensure we’re at our healthiest, but it’s not just important for humans — animals need to have clean mouths, too! Prolonged neglect of tooth enamel can have detrimental consequences for any creature, and putting in the effort to prevent cavities or other dental problems can make a huge impact on an animal’s physical condition.

At the Shanghai Zoo in China, workers are very concerned with animal hygiene and want to ensure they get the proper care they need, but it isn’t always easy to get them to participate in the process.

When one dental hygienist at the zoo reached deep into the mouth of one of the facility’s larger and more dangerous inhabitants, the outcome of this routine cleaning could have gone one of two ways…

Even though hippos may not look aggressive, they are, in fact, one of the most dangerous animals in the world. Luckily, they are only found in Africa.

Hippos are known to be extremely territorial. If anyone or anything encroaches on its territory, it won’t hesitate to defend its waters or its young.

Hippos are designed to be excellent swimmers and capable to sneaking up on prey easily. They can hold their breath for up to six minutes, which gives them a huge advantage over land animals.

The only chief predators that hippos have are humans. They are the third biggest land mammal in the world, and although amazing looking, you’d be wise not to get too close.

A dentist at the Shanghai Zoo recently visited to perform a regular cleaning on the teeth of one very imposing resident: their hippo.

At first, the hippo seems content enough to comply, placing his head on a rock so that dentist could interact with him face-to-face.

The hippo slowly opened his mouth as the dentist got close. Look at how big those teeth are! He could swallow a grown man whole! What was about to happen?

Watch to see what the zoo worker does with the enormous hippo!

(Video may take a moment to load.)

Hippos may be one of the deadliest animals on the planet, but this one sure did enjoy his tooth-brushing!